22O MODERN SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



erers of estray sheep to take out the stray from the flock as it 

 passes into the vat. The mouth of the vat is screened by a curtain 

 so that the sheep cannot see the dip until they are right against 

 it and then it is too late for them to offer effective resistance, 

 as the bottom of the vat at that point has a sufficient pitch and 

 is lined with smooth tin so as to let them slide quite easily into the 

 bath. The vat itself, P, is made of matched plank and its dimen- 

 sions are 12 inches wide at the bottom, 2% feet wide at the top, 

 5y 2 feet deep and 40 feet long. We keep the sheep in the vat 

 two minutes by the watch, after which they pass up the usual 

 slatted and slanted gang way into the double dripping pens, D, 

 each of which is 16 feet wide by 32 feet long; they slope towards 

 each other and have a common dripping drain between them 

 directly under the partition fence. This drain is of the same width 

 as the vat but shallow and passes the drippings back into the vat. 

 These dripping pens are provided with the usual swinging gate 

 at the vat end which permits the use of one pen at a time (the 

 same gate opening one pen while at the same time it closes the 

 other). From the dripping pens slanting outlets closed by small 

 gates permit of counting the sheep while they pass into the large 

 corral at C. The west dripping pen has also an outlet into the 

 pen, T, if it should prove desirable to turn the animals that way. 

 I think that the heating apparatus in use at my plant is worthy 

 of notice, at least I have received many encouraging compliments 

 from the U. S. inspectors that have seen it. I am using a 25-horse- 

 power boiler from an old sawmill which heats the water with 

 steam. Tanks of 600 and 300 gallons capacity are connected with 

 it and there is also a steam pipe connection directly with the vat 

 so that the dip in the vat itself can. be quickly brought up to the 

 required temperature whenever it has cooled below it. There are 

 besides this two auxiliary boilers of 300 gallons' capacity each 

 placed on rock fire pits all connected with the vat by iron pipes 

 provided with valves. Everything is arranged so handy that one 

 man can easily attend to the preparation of the dip. The water 

 is conveyed to the heating plant by an underground pipe line 

 starting from a straining box in the creek and in case there should 

 anything go wrong with this then the water can be taken out of a 

 small open ditch and a line of wooden spouting that runs around 

 the outside of the corral. This small auxiliary stream can also 

 be used to flush the contents of the vat out on to a dry flat away 

 from the place, there to seep into the ground without danger of 

 contaminating any stream. My plant can handle two he'rds per 

 day and we have dipped 7,200 sheep in twelve hours." 



DOCKING AND CASTRATING. 



A good many flockmasters labor under the idea that there is 



